Anniston Museum of Natural History, Anniston AL

Inside we saw this replica of a stegosaurus. His head seems so much smaller than it should be:

They had lots of fossils to look at:

These are two mummies that the museum has had on display since 1980. They are described as middle-class Egyptians who died between 332-330BC(BCE) and were buried in tombs at the valley at Thebes where they were undisturbed until the early 20th century.

I don’t mean to sound weird, but sometimes I think that although mummies are incredibly interesting, it’s disrespectful to have them out on display. It just bothers me a little that although these people – the Egyptian culture – went to all the trouble they did to preserve themselves and bury their people just so, so that everything would be perfect for them in the afterlife – that it somehow gets discounted today when we remove the people/mummies and their objects from the places that they intended to be for…maybe forever.

Does anybody else feel that way?

All the rest of the museum, except for one area for rotating artist exhibits, is dedicated to showcasing animals in displays depicting their natural environment.

One of the most interesting things we saw was this ivory-billed woodpecker on display:

I don’t know exactly how many animals they showcase, but gosh that is a lot of taxidermy.

One area of the museum is showcasing the art of Allison McElroy in an exhibit called “It Is In The Nature Of Things”. There were displays of leaves that had been eaten on by Japanese beetles, displays of spider eggs, wasp nests that the artist had filled with strips from phone book pages (see bottom pic), and other things. This one is called “arboreal bust” and it is made from a plaster cast covered with hornet nest paper.